Govt considers raising tax threshold for some

The Finance Minister wants to raise the tax threshold for middle-income earners but won't say whether that will be announced in next month's Budget.

The government is set to deliver its election-year budget on 25 May and Steven Joyce has said tax cuts are on the table. Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King

Steven Joyce said it would definitely happen if National was re-elected in September.

The current threshold for 30 percent tax is $48,000 - slightly more than the median annual income.

Mr Joyce told TV3's The Nation today he wants to raise that threshold.

"The median wage has been growing in New Zealand and the median wage is now $48 [$48,000], the average wage is now 55 [$55,000], so somebody who hits the median wage is now on 30 cents in the dollar, at that point, if they've been paying a student loan off that's another 12, so that's 42 cents in a dollar and we rightly worry about whether young people can save for a house."